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Originally Posted by Richey79
We're at a different stage with data files now. The tech is rather more mature....
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But not necessarily durable. Acid-free paper will almost certainly be readable 1000 years from now. Hard drives? CD's? Not so much.
Digital still has many challenges, such as:
• Media durability is still relatively short
• Transferring that data requires that it's all consolidated into a small number of locations (which seems unlikely)
• Data can easily be overlooked or neglected
• Intermediaries (hardware and software) are always required
• Databases in particular can be heavily dependent on a complex intermediary infrastructure
• Not all formats are open or convertible, especially databases
• There is no guarantee that individuals or even organizations will have an effective backup method, let alone file transfer method
• So much data is getting generated now, that finding something can present a major challenge in the near future
Digital has numerous advantages, especially for research. But it's hardly the case that archiving this information is a snap.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Ritchey79
I decided to set myself a challenge, to test whether the file formats we use today will be readable in the future....
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And that proves, what?
How much will DV2Anything charge for the conversion? Beta is a magnetic medium, and the tapes degrade; what happens to tapes that aren't converted in time? Or RAW files (a proprietary format) 150 years from now?
Ever try converting one database into another? Or a relational database into a flat file?
How do you recommend we back up the information on Facebook or Twitter? Or in password-protected email accounts? If you're an archivist working on someone who passed away in 1950, you'll have at least some of their correspondence. If they pass away in 2010, you might get everything -- or nothing, if they strongly encrypted their data and gave no one the password.
We don't need to cower in fear over this. But the reality is that concern over the longevity of data is unquestionably warranted, especially for professional archivists and researchers.